JAMMU, India India's new government is ready to hold talks with Kashmiri groups to end the eight-year-old insurgency in the Himalayan region, Defense Minister George Fernandes said. More than a dozen groups are fighting Indian rule in Kashmir in a conflict that has left an estimated 25,000 people dead since 1990. Our doors are open, we can talk to anyone, Fernandes told reporters late on Monday in Udhampur, some 65 km (40 miles) from Jammu, the strife-torn state's winter capital.

While India, which controls two-thirds of Kashmir, says that the Himalayan region is an integral part of the country and this position is non-negotiable, Kashmiri separatist groups are fighting for either independence or merger with Pakistan. I have met several leaders in Delhi and will be meeting more people in Srinagar, the defense minister, who took office last month as part of a Hindu-nationalist led coalition government said.

But he declined to elaborate. Separately, more security forces will be deployed in parts of Jammu and Kashmir where violence has flared up, Fernandes said. I will be talking to (the) chief minister about additional troops. Village defense committees will be also strengthened, he said. This month some 29 people were killed in Dhakikot, about 185 km (115 miles) from Jammu, triggering panic migration from the area.

(Reuter)